1980 Looking at the Big Sky 2558

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Looking at
the Big Sky

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Earth

2023 Oct 01 — 2024 Apr 04
The Earth, its disc blue with water, Africa’s green forests and golden deserts just about peeking out under a sheet of white clouds
Humanity’s first and forever home, pictured in 1972.
Earth (Sun III)
Ɛt, 地球, Mother Earth, the Pale Blue Dirt
Population: 35.1 billion Earthlings or mudeaters
Geology: Arcadian rocky planet
Habitability: Perfect in every regard
Governance: 90-odd squabbling nation-states and confederations, mostly representative democratic republics
First crewed visit: Humans arose circa 200,000 BCE
Most spoken languages: Naija, Mandarin, English, Swahili
Major religions: Christianity, Islam, various folk beliefs
Largest city: Di Kos, the Kurufaba (101mn)
Orbit distance: 147–152 gigametres (8m10s–8m27s)
Day length: 1 T-day
Year length: 365.24 days
Calendar: Gregorian: 365–366 days = 12 months = 1 year, current date 26 May 2558
Satellites: Selene, the Astrapelago

Earth is the third planet from the sun and the original homeworld of humankind. For billions of years, it was the only place in the universe known to harbour any kind of life; even now, it is the only one of our ten planets where intelligent life sprung up by natural means.

Some 35 billion people are embodied1 on Earth, which continues to be the cultural and religious capital of the solar system. Around six thousand tongues are estimated to be spoken across its surface, and the vast majority of religious texts and traditions can trace their way back to the “pale blue dirt”.

“Mother Earth” is the only place in the solar system with a natural coating of liquid water, a naturally breathable atmosphere, and a natural abundance of verdant vegetation — and the only reason for all those qualifications is that Mars spent trillions of drachmæ to make itself more like Earth.

Earth is orbited by one moon — Selene, known to Earthlings as simply “the Moon” — and a constellation of habitats and satellites called the Astrapelago.

Geology

Earth is an idyllic rocky planet, nestled in the inner solar system’s “Goldilocks belt”2 between Venus and Mars. Around two thirds of its surface is covered in a great saltwater ocean, while the land that remains ranges from barren deserts to damp woods and freezing tundras. Its northern and southern poles are blanketed by thickets of ice and snow, albethey thinner than they were prior to the industrial revolution.

A luscious green valley
Eastafrica’s Great Rift Valley is a prototypically Earthling landscape, being where humans first evolved.

The surface of Earth may strike viewers from other planets as being remarkably smooth, with gently sloping mountains and a distinct lack of craters. The reason lies underneath the surface, where a searing, seething sea of lava roils and shifts the cracked continents above into shape, quietly slipping any comet-borne pock-marks underneath the crust.

Even further beneath lies the planet’s stout metal core, a kiln of viscous iron and nickel radiating the powerful natural magnetic field that shields the life above from the electric solar wind.

All of this is topped by the atmosphere, an amicable mix of nitrogen and oxygen that holds the surface down, keeps it warm, and filters the sun’s light to what we still call ”sky blue”. All these things add up to a perfect environment for organic life to flourish — and so it did.

Geography

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History

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Society

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Culture

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Interplanetary relations

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